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• �����dzܳ� 2,500 years ago Greece was one of the most important places in the ancient world.

• The Greeks were great thinkers, warriors, writers, actors, athletes, artists, architects and politicians.

• The name ‘Greeks’ was given to the people of Greece later by the Romans.

• They lived in mainland Greece and the Greek islands, scattered around the Mediterranean Sea.

• People have been living in Greece for over 40,000 years.

• The earliest settlers lived a simple hunter-gatherer or farming lifestyle. This is similar to Prehistoric Britain.

• The Minoans were the first great Greek civilisation between 2200BC and 1450BC.

• They were known as the Minoans after their famous king, Minos.

• After the Minoans came the Mycenaean civilisation.

• They were superb builders and traders, but they were also great soldiers.

• They famously fought in the battle of Troy.

• Homer, an important Greek writer, told stories of the Mycenaean age in his books The Iliad and The Odyssey.

• After the Mycenaean age ended in about 1100BC, Greece entered a Dark Age.

• It is called a dark age because nobody knows much about what happened - all written language and art disappeared.

• In 800BC, almost 300 years after the Dark Age began, Greek civilisation slowly developed again.

• The Greeks started trading more with the outside world.

• They held the first Olympic Games.

• Around 480BC Greece entered a golden age which lasted for 200 years.

• The people built fantastic temples, made scientific discoveries and wrote plays.

• People had a bigger say in how their country was run (democracy).

• Historians call this Classical Greece.

• The last period of Greek history is known as the Hellenistic period.

• This lasted from 323BC to 30BC when the Romans conquered Greece.

• The Romans respected the Greeks and copied many things about their culture, including their buildings, beliefs and clothes.

• There was never one country called ‘ancient Greece’.

• Greece was divided up into small city-states:

  • Athens
  • Sparta
  • Corinth
  • Olympia

• So, ancient Greeks living in Sparta considered themselves Spartan or Athenian first, and Greek second.

• Alexander the Great was a powerful ruler who at one time controlled all of Greece.

Click on the map to find out about some of the cities of Ancient Greece.

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